London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

Trading is tough for Terry Smith’s Tullett Prebon, and Hurricane Sandy rubbed salt into the wounds, the inter-dealer broker said today.

A sluggish July and August — compared with a purple patch for the firm a year earlier when the Eurozone crisis sent markets haywire — was compounded by the disruption to its US operations last week. Tullett was forced to evacuate staff from its Water Street office in New York to its disaster recovery base in New Jersey, while its bigger New Jersey office was also shut down for three days.

Shares sank nearly 6% or 14.9p to 247.1p as the firm reported a 12% slide in revenues compared to last year for the July-October period.

The company also took a £7 million charge in legal fees over three ongoing disputes with bitter rival BGC, concerning alleged data theft and the poaching of 81 staff by BGC from its US office. This brings its legal costs for the year to date to £13.9 million.Numis analyst James Hamilton said: “We expect revenues to remain under pressure as the banks continue to reduce trading activity.

“It is very difficult to see where the next bit of good news is likely to come from as regulation continues to move against trading banks and venues.”